RECENTLY...

Here are a few items that may be of interest....

Worship @ 1280

The previous Sunday night,  I was at LIFT Church at McMaster University  (The whole campus is basking in the glow of winning the “Best, Most exciting,Unbelievable Vanier Cup Final…  in the history of ever) ..... in the 1280 Pub, right in the heart of the Student Centre ( where Pop sensation LIGHTS had just done a concert the night before). How is that for a run on sentence..?

Anway, its newly married former student president Robin Waller held forth on sharing our faith in an age of diversity. His core point was: “ It is not about having to always know the answer or prove that you are right. It is about learning to have an honest, genuine conversation. “

Lift is close to my heart, where my son Dave would spend his Sunday evenings when he was in town.

The band was almost a reunion with the very people who led the worship at Dave's celebration service nearly two years ago when he left us for eternity.

Lead Team Meeting

Segue @ U of M

Tammy Junghans ran a dynamic campaign, this fall, featuring Joy  Clark  MP who has passionately taken up the issue of human slavery . Also featured a former classmate of mine, Mark Wallenburg, who is now a regional director for I.J.M (  International Justice Mission). Our student group Segue has simply taken the issue by the horns and is putting its weight behind it. There has been  tremendous publicity , favour and momentum around an issue that puts Segue on the front edge of one of the most urgent social issues of our day.

You can read more about it all at their website www.segueuofm.com 

Lakehead U, in Thunder Bay- where Gary Wilson and Jed Armstrong are launching a student ministry on campus, supported by Evangel Church on the edge of campus.  As a church they sponsored a Thanksgiving initiative where people in their congregation hosted dozens of international students for a Canadian Thanksgiving!

They just obtained student club status and they are up and running.  This is exciting news and their student executive are  busy planning for the coming term.

Lakehead U Student Centre

Roy Olende is starting an expression of Central Community Church right on the campus of Brock University. While it will be a plant of CCC,it will also have its own flavor and some of its own DNA. Roy has been gathering a core of students to begin worship in January, and he is already wondering what to do with everyone who is showing up. The national director of Red Frogs Canada: Everybody loves Roy. It could be its own sit com. Anyway, we sure do.

Pub/Cafe where they will be "doing church"

Behold Roy!

Other happy things to report. Jamie Nelson from Calvary Church in Cambridge, ON is starting a campus expression of Calvary in the residence of the Conestoga College Cambridge campus. It is a fresh new initiative and it is building a bridge from the existing church to the campus community. It is also experimental as they work at condensing the messages of lead Pastor David Couric into a video format and wrap it with worship and discussion.

The Nelsons!

I had the privilege of trekking out to Masters College and Seminary in Peterborough for their ministry class. With Professor Graham Gibson I took a class of about 70 first year students on a tour of nearby Trent University. Dr Bill Morrow,  the President of Masters College set the stage beautifully in chapel before we left. He preached on “Being the good neighbor” as he unpacked the parable of the Good Samaritan.



Masters students responding in chapel to the call to Be That Neighbor..

We extended the metaphor to the University Campus as we looked at it through missional eyes.

Bridge to the East side of campus

Note the fusion of Christian and native spirituality

In search for a transcendent Cause...

Native feminist spirituality

I had the students answer some basic questions. What's going on here? What do you see? What do you feel? What is God saying to you about it all?. As we debriefed the experience in class afterwards, we discovered several  basic themes.

 People looking for community. People looking for wholeness. People looking for fulfillment. People looking for a transcendent cause. 

In my theology, those are creational desires that are easilty misdirected towards false ends. It is in Christ that our foundational needs are fulfilled. Our calling, indeed our challenge is to find the way to do it.

Professor Graham, who is doing this PhD thesis on pentecostal native spirituality was particularly aware of the evidence of native spirituality throughout the campus. It has struck me that the academy is well aware of the importance of spirituality in native culture, while deriding or negating the  importance of spirituality in our own. No small irony...

While I have heard that there is some Christian activity on campus, it seems to be somewhat underground. It is my conviction that there is a whole lot more that God would do on this campus through individuals that yielded to His call.

We also asked students to consider what God might be saying to them about the Campus. One never knows.....